By the numbers

WASHINGTON — On July 15, Sen. Rob Portman was hunkered down in New York with a group of Wall Street financiers, business executives, big-shot attorneys and top-flight accountants.

Many of those deep-pocketed donors had gone all out giving to Republicans in the 2012 election, only to come away bitterly disappointed with the results – particularly the GOP’s failure to win a majority in the U.S. Senate.

Portman’s job? To persuade the holdouts in the room that 2014 will be different and that they need to open their wallets again.

Portman has been quietly making this pitch to Republican contributors around the country, flying to Chicago, Boston and Atlanta, among other spots, about once a month to keep current donors happy and coax angry ones back into the fold.

Portman’s travels are part of his new gig as vice chair for finance at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. It’s a ho-hum title, but the job has put Portman in the thick of Republican efforts to win control of the Senate.

“He is the chief fundraiser, the most active person at the Senate campaign committee in setting goals, organizing our efforts to meet those goals and soliciting financial support,” said Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., chairman of the NRSC.

The job involves everything from badgering other senators into making fundraising calls, to remaking a moribund online fundraising operation, to stroking the egos of Republican high-rollers.

It might, at first blush, seem like a thankless task. But it carries potential dividends for the Terrace Park Republican, whose name is often mentioned as a possible presidential contender.

As Portman hobnobs with CEOs, hedge fund managers and high-priced lobbyists, he’s cultivating his own donor network that could help him in his 2016 Senate re-election – or a possible national run. And if Portman helps the GOP take the Senate, he will have earned significant chits with his Republican colleagues, starting with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

“These are not immediate payoffs, but this has helped him expand his own national fundraising base,” said Jennifer Duffy, who tracks Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. That will help “in his own re-election efforts and if perhaps he has other aspirations.”

Plus, she noted, McConnell would be “eternally grateful” if Portman helped make him Senate majority leader.

Portman said that’s not the reason he took the job.

Like many other Republicans, Portman was dejected after the GOP’s 2012 losses. The election cycle started out looking promising for Republicans to take over the Senate, with prime pick-up prospects in Missouri, Indiana and elsewhere.

But one race after another started to turn – most notably in Missouri, where Republican Todd Akin’s Senate bid imploded after he told a TV interviewer that victims of “legitimate rape” rarely got pregnant because their bodies somehow blocked it. His Democratic opponent handily won re-election.

“We blew a number of opportunities, as we had in 2010,” Portman told The Enquirer. In the wake of those defeats, he said he started looking for ways he could give the party some “direction and focus.”

Some Republicans pressed him to run for the NRSC chairmanship, but Portman demurred. So McConnell “begged him” to take a lead on fundraising, said Duffy.

And the job’s a good fit.

“Fundraising is a big strength of his,” said Duffy, who added that Portman is popular with donors because of his policy savvy and personal affability.

And, said Moran, he has a lot of good contacts, stretching back to his days serving in both Bush administrations.

“He has a Rolodex that’s of great consequence,” Moran said. “His calls are answered.”

Still, Portman said the job hasn’t been easy. After the GOP missteps in 2012, his entreaties have been met with “a lot of skepticism” and some “donor fatigue,” he said.

“We got beat up one side and down the other,” said Ronald Gidwitz, who runs a Chicago consulting company and has been a longtime GOP contributor. “We were all disappointed.”

Portman said his pitch is simple: The NRSC learned its lesson from 2012 and retooled its operations, recruiting better candidates and preparing to provide them with better campaign support.

Of the 35 Senate races this election cycle, 20 seats are held by Democrats and 15 by Republicans. One of those seats – now held by Republican Sen. Jeff Chiesa of New Jersey, appointed to the seat after the Democratic incumbent passed away – will be filled during a special election and is likely to switch back to Democratic control.

That would mean the GOP needs a net gain of six seats to secure the majority – a pretty tall order.

But Portman notes that many of the Democrats up for re-election in 2014 are running in states that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney won in 2012, such as Montana and South Dakota. Only one Republican incumbent is running in a state President Barack Obama won – Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.

“It’s a pretty easy pitch, really,” Portman said. He talks about everything from the political landscape to tax reform to energy policy – all topics that are of keen interest to his audience.

The result so far? The Ohio senator raised more than $3.3 million in the first six months of 2013, according to an NRSC fundraising tally, by far more than any other GOP senator. Overall, the NRSC raised $17.7 million as of June 30 – about $10 million less than its Democratic counterpart.

Portman said it will be hard to match the Democrats, because as the majority party, they enjoy a built-in fundraising advantage. But he said he’s hoping to at least “close the gap” so GOP candidates have plenty of resources.

Gidwitz, the Chicago donor, said Portman is certainly “the guy that has the types of relationships and the character to do that.”

He has already ponied up $30,000 to the NRSC this year, although he said he didn’t take much persuading.

“2012 is behind us,” Gidwicz said.

And 2014 looks good, he said, “if we can keep from shooting ourselves in the foot.” ■